“Our citizens are dying. We must act boldly to stop it.” This statement by President Trump’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis is in response to drug overdoses now killing more people than gun homicides and car crashes combined. Since 1999, more than 620,000 people in this country have died due to…
“I used to have nightmares actually, about a shadowy figure that would stand over my bed,” said M, “and it was shaped like my assailant.” M, a college student in Georgia, is a survivor of sexual assault. She has experienced PTSD since the attack a year ago. She has been taking medication and going to…
The school shooting in Parkland, Fla., has sparked much debate about the availability of guns and about how law enforcement responds to warnings that people are planning crimes. Some have targeted mental illness as the problem behind this and other mass shootings. But in a new GHN Commentary, behavioral health expert Pierluigi Mancini notes that…
When we associate mass shootings with mental illness, we are doing a disservice to the millions of Americans who have a mental illness, have found recovery, are living in wellness and have never shot anyone. The fact that these two issues continue to be associated and presented as cause and effect is wrong. Continuing to…
Georgia dropped from 29th to 31st in a measurement that reflects how people feel about and experience their daily lives. The Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index score for the U.S. in 2017 – out of a possible score of 100 — was 61.5, a decline from 62.1 in 2016. This drop reflected declines in 21 states, including in…
The state has produced powerful new videos in an effort to help combat teenage suicide. The Public Service Announcements, released by the GBI’s Child Fatality Review Panel, feature teens talking about depression and hopelessness – and ways to overcome them. Over the past three years, 144 children/teenagers committed suicide in Georgia. Already this year, four…
The mental health needs of many Georgia children are not being addressed, primarily because of a lack of professionals to treat them, according to a report released Monday. The report from Voices for Georgia’s Children cites a “severe shortage’’ of child and adolescent psychiatrists statewide. It also reported that 76 of the state’s 159 counties…
At 54, Lorenzo Hardy finally feels like a productive member of society. He usually wears a three-piece suit — fedora and all, fluently discusses civil disobedience theory, and estimates that he has read more than 2,000 books. He is also a twice-convicted felon, three years out of prison after a 20-year sentence. Hardy served two…
The case started with a tip from concerned Dougherty County citizens. They told authorities that residents of some Albany apartments were approaching people and “begging for food.’’ Those July complaints have culminated in the arrest of three people in what was described Tuesday by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr as a “horrific elder abuse scheme.’’ The residents…
Gov. Nathan Deal, in his final State of the State address, announced Thursday that he is recommending $22.9 million in additional funding for children’s mental health services. He based the funding on the work of a state commission on children’s mental health, which recently issued recommendation for improving kids’ services.ie Deal, a Republican former congressman, has been elected…